We humans are not too effective in reducing the emissions of CO2 and other GHGs. Thus, the atmosphere is retaining more heat and climate has shifted into a chaotic mess.
But what if we could invent a bacteria that would digest CO2 into O2 and “carbon poop” as a means of reducing climate risks?
(Here’s an article that I read after writing this that discusses various geo-engineering efforts — all of which need capital or other inputs to expand, so they are not subject — I hope! — to the runaway dynamic I describe here.)
I’m not sure that we can (or will), but I am pretty sure that “we” (the inventors? a nation? a business? the UN?) would release it in the hope that we could save ourselves from run away heating and climate chaos.
But I’m pretty sure that would be a bad idea — like what would stop those bacteria from digesting too much? Indeed, I can easily see that the bacteria would multiply in our CO2-rich environment, thereby digesting so much CO2 that plants would start to suffocate and producing so much O2 that we humans (and other animals) would be poisoned by excess O2.
The Earth would cool, of course — potentially losing so much “insulation” that we started burning more fossil fuels just to stay warm.
I could go on with impacts (what good/bad impact can you think of?), but let’s just stop here and admit that we humans have no idea of how to “control” the Earth in the Anthropocene.
Nice try.